“That Is Not a Choke!”: Shaquille O’Neal Emulates Draymond Green, Tries to Put Charles Barkley in a Chokehold on Inside the NBA

The In-Season Tournament so far has been a huge success in the NBA. It manages to create a level of competition similar to what we see in the Playoffs, and sometimes it brings out the worst. Tonight, we saw multiple examples of the latter. One of them happened when Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels got into a scuffle. Rudy Gobert got involved, and Draymond Green put him in a chokehold. Seeing this, Shaquille O’Neal got all excited on Inside the NBA.

Shaquille O’Neal maybe 51 years of age, but still is a child at heart. After the Inside crew gave their analysis of the whole situation, they went on to discuss other things, as they often do. Charles Barkley mentioned how his niece is getting married on Thursday. Shaq got up on the pretext of hugging Kenny Smith, which he did. However, not too soon after, he went and tried to emulate what Dray did to Rudy with Barkley, as can be seen in the Clip uploaded by NBA on TNT.

Seeing this, Ernie Johnson spoke up from the sides, saying, “This is not a choke!”

Shaq really put Chuck in a chokehold 🤣 pic.twitter.com/swyvgEeiun

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) November 15, 2023

Ernie’s analysis was on point. Shaq tried to get Chuck in a chokehold, but his arm couldn’t manage to get a clean grip on Chuck’s neck. However, unlike what happened during the Warriors-Wolves games, this was all in good fun. Right after that, TNT showed the image of a rookie Chuck holding Larry Bird in a chokehold.

Barkley jokingly said, “Dr. J owes me money for this fine!” 

While what happened today was not okay, it was a blessing in disguise for the Warriors. We saw rookie Brandin Podziemski and Dario Saric have 20+ point performances. This was the first time this season that a Warrior, excluding Stephen Curry, had scored 20+ points in a game.

Shaquille O’Neal Believes Rudy Gobert Should Have Been Ejected as Well

After all that happened within the first minute and half of the InSeason Tournament game between the Warriors and the Wolves, the Inside crew had to give their opinion about the same. They heard Steve Kerr’s post-game comments about the same, and Kenny Smith started by expressing his surprise that Rudy Gobert wasn’t ejected.

Charles Barkley tried to defend Rudy and said, “He’s just holding him[Klay Thompson]!”

Shaq opposed Chuck’s point of view and said, “Draymond’s just holding him!”

The two NBA legends went back and forth about the same, with Chuck agreeing with the referees’ decision of not ejecting Gobert.

In the clip, it’s clear that Gobert had his arm around Klay’s neck. However, with Draymond rushing and holding him, Gobert had no choice but to let go. We’re not condoning what Draymond did, but if he was tossed for the same, Gobert should have been as well. We’ll have to wait and see what the league office has to say about the same.